Letters to the Editor
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@ SueNJ97
You mentioned you don't need a passport except for Iceland. I've crossed borders on the train as a tourist several times over the last 25+ years and they always ask to see my passport when they do the security check on the train. Since you are living in Europe at this point, do you have actual ID (Drivers' License, ID Card) from an EU country that they would accept, which I could absolutely see? However, I'm not sure the people who come on the train asking to see the ID would be happy with my NJ drivers' license if I tried to give it to them. Maybe next time I'm there I should try and see what happens.
Well, you need a residency permit to live in any of these places, yes, but you're missing the point a little. When you've been admitted to one of the Schengen countries [1], there are no "people who come on the train asking to see the ID"--and if you drive, the customs booths are just gone. I haven't been to the whole set of Schengen countries, but on trains entering Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg and The Netherlands, I haven't been asked for a passport or a residency permit since I've been here. You do need to have a ticket though ;-)
Last time I was in Europe, I needed to show a passport when crossing from Austria to the Czech Republic, but as it turns out, they've added a whole raft of new countries including the Czech Republic since I came back. At this point, it looks like you could ride from Lisboa to Budapest without taking your passport out of your pocket.
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schengen_Agreement
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@granola
Well, then that explains it...the last time I took the train crossing a border was the one you mentioned, before the Czechs came in. I've been too broke to go back until this year, and I only took trains in Italy. Before that, I did have the experience of them coming on the train and asking for ID, often, at borders. Nice to know it's all gone.
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So Long Canada
As one of those Americans with a cottage in BC, Canada, I twell tell you it's not fun returning to the boarder to face the Boarder Patrol. But for my Canadaian friends, specifically, my Canadian neighbor, a man in his 70"s, to have to face the intimidation/disrespect from the US Boarder Patrol is totally un-American. My neighbor and freind had his personal address book look at and information on US citizens(probably me)taken down and I guess put into their computer. Plus all the other stupid and demeaning questions they put him through, I can see why our Canadian neighbors don't want to come to the US. Even as an American citizen by birth I dread returning over the boarder the possible treatment from our wonderful Boarder I will get the next time I travel to Canada.
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Mossad used Canadian passports
Mossad has been caught using Canadian passports.
"...a Mossad assassination squad using altered passports of Canadian Jewish residents of Israel botched an attempt to murder Khaled Meshal, the political chief of the Hamas Islamic movement, in Amman."
http://www.wrmea.com/backissues/0198/9801026.htm
Passports don't kill people. People kill people.
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True Border story
Back in the early 70s my friend's dad was crossing the border from Canada into the United States on a business trip. He had just moved to Toronto from Northern Ontario to work for some fancypants research lab or something. When the border guard asked him where he was from he replied "Toronto" with the emphasis on the second T, and not "Tronna" which is of course the preferred pronunciation of the locals.
The border guard pulled him over and searched him high and low...all because someone from Tronna would never say ToronTo.
I always found that story amusing...
cheers
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One woman's not-so-unusual story
I cross the border about once a month or so, between Vancouver, BC and Seattle, WA and have done so for the past 4 years. You see, I met a lovely man online and we are now, what, boyfrend and girlfriend? With intent for a future together? He finds our parliamentary system quaint and our liquor laws draconian; I find that American cheese is atonishingly cheap and I pray I won't take ill each time I head south. He drives up, I take the train or Amtrak bus. The treatment he receives coming north is waaaay different than mine heading south.
Apart from the long lineups that can be over two hours long, coming north he has been asked why he's visiting, do I know he's coming (what, they're protecting me from American stalkers now?), the firearms question (do you own a gun?), and whether he's bringing gifts (I always hope so). Once, on his return to the US, he was asked if he had ever visited the Soviet Union (my personal favourite).
Heading south, we are all removed from the bus, must take our luggage though immigration and have it inspected and xrayed and, on occasion, are lined up against a wall to be sniffed by drug dogs. I'm asked what I do for a living, how long I'm staying, why don't I have a return ticket and that the next time I cross I'd better have one or I won't be let in. When asked why I'm crossing, if I say just visiting they want to know who I'm staying with; if I say I'm visiting my boyfriend they want to know everything about us - how long we've been seeing each other, where we met, whether we intend to get married and why or why not? I was detained (and the bus I was on) for over an hour, questioned in a back room, threatened with being returned and finally had my passport stamped with a B-2 stamp and sent off, simply because I was coy about how we met (I'll never do that again). I work on a contract basis in a profession that scarcely exists in the States, yet I'm always treated like I'm heading south to steal jobs and take advantage of the American social system. Now, I have to say that I realise that my treatment is mostly due to my mode of transportation; that is, the hassle comes from the perceived notion that if I'm travelling Amtrak I must be poor and deficient and desperate and I want disappear the second I cross the border, so it's a question of class prejudice in general, not anti-Canadianism in particular. And I cringe everytime a non-caucasian is on the bus with me, because I know we're in for a long delay, no matter what their passport says.
All that being said, I still go through it because I want to see him. I know what I'm letting myself in for and I've prepared and polished my cross-border spiel to a high gloss. I know I'm not a criminal, but it's hard not to feel like one sometimes. No amount of grilling a caucasian, middle-class, middle-aged woman will stop the influx of "undesireables", but I grimly bear it. I come from a long line of border-crossers: farmers in the 1800s immigrating to Washington State from Ontario, Vermonters coming to Quebec in the 1900s. I wouldn't mind having an easier time of it, but not at the cost of my country's sovereignty. I wish that 9-11 hadn't happened and that you, being hammers, didn't see everything and everyone as a nail, but if I wish to visit the US I have my passport in hand. I know the routine.
Most problems that Americans have at the Canadian border come from DHC directives, in the interests of "harmonization of security"
By the way, the guarantors who sign a Canadian passport application attest to the fact your photo is in fact of you. One more step in stopping fraud.